Cycling the Ardennes

This blogpost is written for the period of 19-27 October. Cycling the Ardennes for that week and a halve was another eventful leg of the trip! After leaving the Elzéard foundation we cycled for three days, but stayed then three nights at my godmothers place. It was a last well-known stop before finally leaving the territory. 

Arriving in Liège, start of the Albert Canal

Golden hour in the morning,
 bivouac close to Liège 

On the first day cycling from Voeren, we stopped in Liège where Nicolaas and I spend our afternoon separately. He had his girlfriend paying him a visit, with whom he cycled leisurely through the Ourthe valley. I on the other hand went to see a cousin who is studying physiotherapy here. My mother had organised a big family reunion at the end of the summer. There we met a lot of family that I’d never seen before, and it was surprise to discover I had a French cousin living in Belgium. It felt good to continue establishing the new family bonds and we had a nice small lunch and visit in the surprisingly vivid city centre of Liège. Nicolaas’s girlfriend bivouacked with us that night, after we met up again near Esneux.

Komina sending us down a mud track
 between fields

She left the morning after having to go back to Ghent. Komina, the Komoot gps-voice, guided us through the hills between the Ourthe and the Meuse, with wooded valleys and green hilltops for two days. She did sometimes think we were rather mountain biking or being way too adventurous, because she sent us through a few muddy paths (very impractical with that much luggage and small tires), but overall the Komoot route was very good. Even though it was only the second time we consecutively cycled for a few days, this time we took less breaks and stopped less. The initial pleasure of being out on the road and looking out for and being excited by every detail had kind of faded away. Maybe the mindset of overcoming the distance and going from A to B, that is also more my own, had become more dominant. The absence of small pauzes still made us reach the limits of Nicolaas’s stamina, so we took a longer lunch break on Sunday before arriving at my godmother’s. We used the same system the following days, either longer breaks or an early stop in the evening. My advance-focused mind did also enjoy to relax this way, not move and just experience the watery sun appearing behing the clouds and warming my back, while writing and reading during lunch breaks. 

Chilling at the next camping spot

This is in a lot of ways the opposite of arriving somewhere to bivouac. Then it is routine and organisation that dominate my mind: unpack, cook, search for utensils and food, eat, putting up the tent, arranging stuff, putting stuff back in the bicycle bags; so many things to do. Having little with me, makes some processes longer, especially cooking. But at the same time, eating the food cooked on a little alcohol stove is one of those tasks that makes me proud of myself. We did our best to make nice food, like cooking eggs in the morning our making a nice pasta dish (with veggie meatballs!).

By now, most of my gear and stuff has it’s precise place in every of my six bags (I hereby promise a post about my gear will be made in the coming month). All in all, cycling long distance is a simple life, with simple pleasures and pains. The routines and focus are something that can support or constrict the travel experience and it is, as always, a question of balance between them. Nicolaas being such a different companion is part of why I am happy having him along, because he tends to break my habits and routines to create enough interesting and refreshing moments.

Doing the dirty work
of cleaning a chain

The cycling routine was pleasantly broken by the stop at my godmother. She lives in a beautiful village, Marcourt, with her wife Els, where she works almost fulltime in the garden and on the land, where a lot of trees are planted. A part of the land is used by another farmer to keep sheep in, which offers a nice view out of the living room.  She is one of the most energetic people I know, always full of plans and ideas. I have made a tradition out of it, to always stay a night when I cycle south or north trough the Ardennes. This time, in the spirit of our travel objectives, I offered to help her out for a few days. This gave us the opportunity to work and rest a little bit more before the planned week of cycling that was coming up. The work was very fun and fulfilling: excavating an old tree stump, planting new trees, making firewood, transporting hay. My godmother had made a big to do list we only did about half of. On our last day, we also cleaned our bike chains (this has to be done once in a while to extend their lives). Furthermore, we ate very well, thanks to the cooking skills of Els, with for example a stew with lamb from the sheep outside. It didn’t felt wrong (sorry fellow vegetarian readers), as it truly came from next door and was from some good, personally observed farming. When we left, we had also replenished our luggage with olive oil, toilet paper and some rhubarb jam (delicious), crucial items when bivouacking. 

Always follow the little green-and-white cycling node signs... (also note the weather getting worse)

Back on the road felt good for us both, as we both longed for a longer part of just travelling by bike and not stopping. I had also discovered another website for cycling nodes, which has a more up-to-date map, that even showed areas where on the current day a hunt its taking place or where road works would force you to take a detour. The biggest surprise was that there were cycling nodes in France, which inspired me to program a huge route trough the Fagne-Famenne region and into France, purely by that node-system. I was curious for the quality and choice of roads. And wow, I really can recommend using them for Wallonia. The network is a little less dense, so going in a certain direction makes the route even more full of detours, than in Flanders. It also shows gaps, like under Liege and around Charleroi. The non-asphalted parts of the route are also much more soggy and muddy, but the landscape and views are all the more beautiful. You pass beautiful forested hills, picturesque villages and over small streams, you encounter ancient trees and weird sculptures. There is also a surprisingly big amount of cycling infrastructure. I will certainly use the cycling nodes in the future for the south of Belgium and if it extends even more, in France! 

Seeing the oldest linden tree of Belgium (400 years), Baraque de Conneux, and encountering strange artwork near Dinant

Leaving Marcourt, where we were always talking and working with our hosts, left Nicolaas and me on our own again, which meant we had to work together more, but also caused more friction at certain times. Besides the frequent discussions, our differences in strength, moments of tiredness or energy and just plain personality caused distance or collisions. We sure are both sensitive and like to be right. I for example tend to be a bit brisk sometimes, which for Nicolaas is something that is hard to handle. I on the other hand have difficulties taking critique, especially on decisions I make, which is tough, as I program the route, which involves lots of them. Generally we are trying to give each other space and we often talk about it afterwards, so no friction is left to ‘ferment’. It is interesting to consider how travelling with two makes possibly the most true personalities come out, with good and bad sides. I think the friction is very normal, and in general we really enjoy the travel together.

A big highlight of our past days of travel, in dry, (and thus) excellent weather conditions, was certainly the barrage d’Heure, where we arrived at lunch time. It was the warmest 26th October ever recorded in Belgium, and sure did we notice. We took a swim, sunbathed and I even took the opportunity to wash some clothes which dried well on the tree branches. I already knew then that it was probably the last of that exceptional warm, amazing weather, since we had grey clouds and morning mist ever since. I also managed to get my second vaccine shot against brain encephalitis (I got my first one before leaving) in Chimay, something I had to plan ahead for, calling different pharmacies. Finally I obtained it, and got the injection the same evening at the medical out-of-hours service. To celebrate we treated ourselves to Belgian fries (also to commemorate our last day in our Kingdom). The next day a RaVel (Réseau Autonome des Voies Lentes), some kind of Walloonian greenways laid out on old rail lines, lead us out of the country.

A misty border-crossing

We passed through a very underwhelming border crossing and into a very misty France. The cycling nodes there are nice, but we followed them  too little to really say something about them. From then on, I will mostly orient myself on the paper Michelin travel atlas of France, a kind of map I have been using since my first cycle journeys, where I rip out the pages that I need from the atlas. It works very well, as the map shows points of interest, beautiful roads, climbs, some altitudes and the size of the roads. It makes navigating along the calm and pretty roads of France easy. It also never needs to be charged and is hanging in a plastic etui around my neck: always available! We are headed to Paris in the coming days, a travel I will cover along with our probable stay in the Capital! Cheers and thanks for reading.

Our last cycling node sign. Into France!